Searching for books about space and its colonization

[Aleksey_aka_al]

Non-fiction.

Subject scope that I am interested in:

1. Space exploration and colonization, astronautics, space habitat. How scientists and futurologists see it in the future; predictions.
2. Astronomy, astrophysics, structure of galaxies and the universe. In plain language with as little math as possible, an overview maybe, something general for a casual reader.
3. Structure of planets, atmospheres, their evolution, etc.
4. Possible biospheres on other planets; the Earth's biosphere: its history in the big picture (without the detailed history of species, with an emphasis on biosphere-atmosphere and biosphere-climate relationship, and the like).
5. Closed ecosystems.

You are also free to discuss or suggest books out of this scope.

 

[Tenochtitlan]

You can't go wrong with Cosmos by Carl Sagan

 

[El_Machinae]

It's a good idea for pro-space people to buy books like these. Our funding of space development is so small, that getting the fans to subsidize these researchers is actually a significant source of encouragement. These people are willing to get educated and think very hard about these problems, but only if they can get paid to do so. A qualified engineer and a qualified project manager will eventually go help build cheese slicers, if that's how they'll get paid. But, if we help fund them, they'll keep researching and doing the necessary math and writing books to inspire the next generation.

And if the fans aren't even willing to spend their money, we can understand why society isn't willing to either.

I liked the Space Elevator books

Though there's more than one version of the idea now.
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20090724/space_elevator_090725/

 

[Eat_Up_Martha]

Robert Zubrin is pretty heavily involved in space colonization theory. He wrote a book called the Case for Mars detailing, as might be expected, his ideas for safely colonizing Mars in the near future. It's been a long time since I've read it, but I think he had some good ideas that might be worth looking into. I think he released an edited and updated version pretty recently.

 

[Winner]

Robert Zubrin is pretty heavily involved in space colonization theory. He wrote a book called the Case for Mars detailing, as might be expected, his ideas for safely colonizing Mars in the near future. It's been a long time since I've read it, but I think he had some good ideas that might be worth looking into. I think he released an edited and updated version pretty recently.

Also his Entering Space: Creating a Spacefaring Civilization is quite interesting. It contains some interesting ideas concerning this subject, although it's by no means exhaustive and unbiased.

 

[Aleksey_aka_al]

Thanks!

More needed.